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Interacting with Key Suppliers: Relationship Spirals

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Service Operations Dynamics
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Abstract

A special category of stakeholders is that of the key suppliers, or co-makers. The bulk of the service transactions in this world is B2B (Business-to-Business). Moreover, every B2C (Business-to-Consumer) company provides services in co-production with a range of suppliers. In services, often, the consumers will be directly affected by the performance of these suppliers, very different from manufacturing. In service supply chains, the supplier, the service provider, and the customer effectively form a service triad. This chapter looks at this phenomenon through the case of a European port authority and its IT outsourcing partner. A winner’s curse outsourcing contract and serious maritime incidents led to a vicious relationship spiral. Through a collaborative service design process, parties tried to reverse this spiral into a virtuous one.

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Akkermans, H. (2018). Interacting with Key Suppliers: Relationship Spirals . In: Service Operations Dynamics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72017-3_7

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